Friday, July 23, 2010

'60s British illustration: "... a great but little known era"

Guest author David Roach concludes his description of the fabulous new book, Lifestyle Ilustrations of the '60s, just released in the UK and Europe by the new publishing house Fiell and edited by Rian HughesHopefully the book will stand as a fitting tribute to a great but little known era and the artists who helped define it, but I’m all too aware of how much more there is to discover.

I was amazed when writing about the artists how difficult it was to find out anything about Lynn Buckham (below) for instance - indeed for most of the time researching his career I didn’t even know if he was even a "he"… or a "her."

There is even less information around about the Brits. Thankfully some giants of the artform such as Walter Wyles (below) are still with us.

But far too many have just disappeared from sight entirely. One of the very most talented Brits in the book is Eric Earnshaw (below) and yet to date I have been unable to find out anything at all about his life or career. It is as if he has simply vanished entirely, as if he had never been born almost.

I got my copy last week, and I'm blown away by the volume of illustrations inside, the talent and the vivid colors. I love how it is presented in a year-by-year format, but one complaint would be that most of the illustrations are taken out of context - that is, the main subjects have been cropped from what was probably a horizontal, two-page layout. That being said, though, I love this book, and can't wait for the 50s volume.

Eric Earnshaw along with Will Davies was a regular artist for- Womans Weekly, a very popular Brit magazine- in the 60s. His distinctive style made one visualise the characters so well, that one "knew" what the hero and heroine looked like. One knoweth not where those art influencing giants have gone, Earnshaw, Davies, Peter Gibson , Tom McNeely et al...